Reviewed: September 22, 2006
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Microsoft

Developer
Q Entertainment
Phantagram

Released: August 15, 2006
Genre: Action
Players: 1

6
8
6
6
6.2

Supported Features:

When I heard that Phantagram was heading up N3: Ninety-Nine Nights, saw the screens, and read the game information, I had high hopes of these two franchises meeting and evolving into something better than the sum of its parts. Sadly, N3 quickly devolves into dismal Dynasty Warriors territory with a lame story, and mindless button-mashing gameplay that will cause spontaneous callus growth on your thumb.

I must compliment the designers on at least coming up with a unique presentation that tries to get people to play through this game a whopping seven times. You see; they’ve carved up the generic tale of humans vs. goblins and assigned a bit of the story to each of the seven playable characters, only one of which is available out of the box. As you play through one character’s story you’ll unlock other characters who you can then take through parallel missions to reveal even more plot points. It’s a great idea and one that would work well if anybody remotely cared about these characters or the story.

There is an underlying RPG element in that you earn experience, which in turn levels-up your character enabling new attacks and combos, but the simple fact is that you don’t need to master any of it to win. Simply mash the X and Y buttons like you are playing Track and Field and watch the kill meter rise. You can also do a block with the left trigger but this seldom does more than break your current combo.

Fallen enemies leave behind red orbs that you can collect to unleash super-powerful Orb Attacks. Anybody you defeat during this time will leave behind blue orbs that fill a secondary meter. When this meter is full, you can unleash all sorts of hell, basically sending out a shockwave that kills everything on the screen and does a nice amount of damage to the bosses and sub-bosses.

There are seven characters in all and while they all control and play the same, they all have varying attack animations and orb attack effects that make them fun to try for awhile, but still not nearly compelling to replay the game seven times. The first three playable characters have leadership abilities and you are allowed to pick two units to watch your back. Commands are limited to follow and stay, much like a good dog. While the potential for some KUF strategy is lurking behind this concept, regardless of whether you pick arches, pikemen, or infantry, most of the time the AI just has these characters standing around while you do all the work. At best, they are diversions to make your job slightly easier.

Perhaps the worst part of the friendly AI armies is that they actually interfere with your attempts to play the game while ignoring them. They refuse to be ignored and will chase down the enemy and attack with fervor, but sadly are impotent when it comes to dealing damage. They will hit the enemy but not hurt the enemy, so what happens is that they strike and trigger the recoil or injury animation of that enemy at which time they are immune to more damage – the damage you are trying to inflict. Now, not only do you have to ignore and avoid your allies, you have to lure the bigger targets away from the battle to deal with them one on one.

Some other design glitches include not having an inventory, aside from the weapons and armor you can actually equip. This means that if you open a chest and there is a health potion inside and you don’t need it…well, let’s just say it will have faded from existence before you get back. Ultimately, you’ll learn to refrain from opening any chests (at least intentionally) until you think you might need what’s inside.

There are also a lot of issues where presentation actually hampers the gameplay. Cutscenes will often interrupt you right in the middle of a battle and if you had a record combo of attacks in the works you just lost it. There are also cutscenes that play out after a major boss battle, often taking you to the mission’s results screen and ending the mission. The only problem with this is that the bosses usually leave behind some nice trinket that you now can no longer obtain. Way to rip me off there guys…

The levels are huge, both in map size and the number of enemies you’ll be facing, and most missions can take upwards of 30 minutes or more. Normally, I applaud such scale but when you remove any checkpoint system or mid-level save you’ll often find yourself facing an end-level boss you aren’t equipped to deal with. Fortunately, you can go back to previous levels and replay them to grind away on your experience.

Special effects are really nice, especially for the orb attacks and the super-orb attacks. There is one character, Tyurru, who has this water attack that will blow your mind. Plus, there will be red orbs floating all around the battlefield triggering flashbacks to Devil May Cry.

My only real complaints are with the lack of variety, both in soldier models and animations, as well as environments. While the levels they have are nice, playing through them seven times definitely starts to wear you down. And with all the soldiers looking and animating alike, even though it’s good animation, this too gets painfully repetitive.

The HUD is reasonably and stays out of the way of the gameplay. There is a nice radar insert as well as orb gauge and combo counter and a health bar for your character. The menus, map, and equipment screens are all very nicely rendered and quite artistic.

The voice acting is pretty lame and I would have much preferred a Japanese speech option with English subtitles, as I do for most of these import titles. There really isn’t that much speech or even vocal sounds. I would expect some crying and yelling from at least a few hundred of the thousands I am slaughtering on the battlefield. Instead, I only hear my character mostly, and each of the seven only have a handful of lines that repeat far too often and frequently.

Sound effects are oddly subdued for a game that features battles that mirror the scale of Lord of the Rings. There are no thundering footsteps or battle cries. Only the occasional swoosh of arrows or the clank of sword or pike glancing off a shield breaks up the monotony. At least some of the orb attacks trigger impressive sound effects.

Leveling up your character isn’t as hard since you’ll already be around level 6 or 7 at the end of their story, but then you have to subject yourself to replaying missions you have already done just for the sake of achievement points. It’s all just a cheap trick to entice those obsessed with their gamer score to play this game a lot longer than they should.

There is no online or offline multiplayer, which I don’t mind as much as not having an Xbox Live Leaderboard. Any game that scores you on a per mission basis should at least allow you to compare your performance with the world.

For fans of Dynasty Warriors, you’ll be in heaven, but if you are looking for tactics, strategy, story, or even a game that makes sense, you’ll probably want to look somewhere else.